Access grid for Linux

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This document summarises the information that is available from accessgrid.org agcentral.org and several other sites. It describes general details about setting up AG 2.4 and also some specific details for use within the eMinerals pro ject. Installing AG 2.4 on Linux is dependant on the distribution, there are packages available for several distributions including: Gentoo, Fedora Core, Slackware, SuSE, Ubuntu, and Debian (2.3). Gentoo is the only version of Linux that is supported by Argonne National Labs, the others are supported externally. There is documentation available for installing for different distributions below are links to all the packages and documentation.

  • Gentoo: The main Access Grid site has the AG software for Gentoo and information on installing it.

http://www-unix.mcs.anl.gov/fl/research/accessgrid/software/releases/2.4/index.html

Once installed using the above links you will be able to execute the Venue Server by running VenueClient command or (better) going through the desktop Menu and clicking on ”Venue Client” within the ”Access Grid” folder.

The first time you execute the Venue client, you will be asked to request a certificate. You can request an identity, which might take some time to be received or you can get an anonymous certificate (I think you should just choose an anonymous certificate). To do this click on the ”Select Certificate Type” combo box and select anonymous. This should then give you an anonymous certificate which you can install using the certificate manager. If you are behind a proxy, then you will need to select to use the proxy server and enter this into the edit box.

Once you have received the certificate you will be asked some questions such as your name email etc and whether you are using a node or a user (choose user for a desktop access grid). The Venue Client will then load with a default Venue Server address. The default address needs to be changed to https:// george.ag.mcc.ac.uk/Venues/default (see below). When this loads it will take you into the AGSC Venue Server Lobby, you can then see rooms (down the side of the Venue Client) into which you can enter. To get to the eMinerals room you need to click on the door next to ”UK Venues”, then when this loads the door next to the ”e-Minerals” room. While doing this the video and audio tools will open and close, this is slightly annoying but normal.

Once in the e-Minerals Venue you can save the Venue so that you can go straight to it without having to navigate through the rooms and having to remember the george.ac.mcc.ac.uk URL. To save the e-Minerals Venue goto the ”My Venues” menu and click on ”Add Current Venue...” menu item. This gives you a dialog box where you can decide what to call the Venue (I’ve left it as e-Minerals). Click OK and now if you look in the ”My Venues” menu you have an ”e-Minerals” Venue that you can click on and it will take you to the eMinerals room without having to remember how to get there.

If you have multicast enabled at your institute then you can probably already see and hear people. If you don’t have multicast then you probably just see your name in the audio tool and a ”waiting for video” in the video tool. To be part of the group you will need to use one of the bridges that are avail- able for the eMinerals room. Goto the ”Preferences” menu and then click on the ”Unicast” menu item. A dialog box will appear that has a list of three bridges, chose one of these and then click OK, this will reload the venue with you sending your video/audio via the bridge. To use the bridge you will need to have UDP ports open for a certain range for incoming and outgoing data. The AGSC/Manchester bridge will pick the ports at random meaning that you will need them all open :(. If you use one of the other two bridges the ports that will be used are restricted to 30000-30011 so you only need to have this range of UDP ports open for it to always work.

Now you can finish by configuring your node to have the tools you require. You might find that at the moment you cannot transmit video (in the vic tool transmit is disabled). This will be because you only have a Video Consumer Service running. To transmit video you need to add a Video Producer Service or simply have a Video Service which does both. The next part looks at this.

In the ”Preferences” Menu click on the ’Manage My Node...” menu item the ”Access Grid Node Management” dialog will appear, this allows you to add and remove the services to suite you. There are several services that are available by default with the Access Grid toolkit, these include the Video Services and the Audio Services. By clicking on one of the services in the list box you can select to remove it by going to the ”Service” Menu and clicking on the ”Remove” menu item. To add a new service you goto the ”Service” Menu and select the ”Add” menu item - this will show a dialog which allows you to select a new service to add. If you don’t want to see yourself then choose the ”VideoConsumerService” and ”VideoProduceServices”. If you do want to see yourself then simply remove all other video services and add a ”VideoService”.

Finally, you can change a few settings on the video and audio tools.

  • Video: First you can change the quality of the video stream and the frames per second by clicking on the ”Menu” button on the video tool. Some important features include the rate which is controlled by the slide bar at the top of the menu. The quality of the video you send is controlled by the slide bar which has a ”quality” label next to it (the lower the value the higher the quality). Another feature is the ”Tile” combo box, this allows you to specify how many columns there will be for the thumbnail streams on the main window (useful if there are lots of participants).
  • Audio: To test the audio tool is working correctly you can do a tone test and also see if your microphone is working. To do the tone test, click on the ”Options” button. A dialog box will appear which shows some of your details - click on the ”Category” combo box and select ”Audio” from the list - now click on the ”tone test” button and you should hear a tone. Now to check the microphone go back to the main rat window and click on the talk button. Talk into the microphone and the bar on the tool should fluctuate as you speak.
  • Final Notes: I suggest that you don’t use the ”Echo Suppression” in the Audio Category, just get some headphones instead.
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